Month: October 2011

The God-Blasted Land by Lee Carlon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a science fiction fantasy story. It’s set in another world after an apocalyptic event called the Cleansing. There are remnants of the old world around to remind everyone how things used to be but are not the way of life anymore. I always find other people’s interpretation of these types of events fascinating.

Avril is a young man trying to find his way in the world. A car is his home and scavenging technology parts is his job. There are many secrets surrounding him and he’s not sure who can be trusted. And he’s getting cheesed off with people trying to kill him. There are dragons, shapeshifters, bondsmen and a girl to contend with.

This is a story that appealed to me from the start. I ‘liked’ the characters straight away and I enjoyed learning about their world. It’s a small thing, but I liked the short chapters too. In our own world, with so much to do and not much time to do it, short chapters are heaven to me. It means I can snatch a few minutes of reading here and there without having to put the book down in the middle of a paragraph. Yet the best thing about this book is the constant action and the unexpected turn of events you encounter along the way. It was a smooth ride from start to finish and thoroughly enjoyable.

I will certainly be reading the second book when it comes out.

The Colour Of Magic by Terry Pratchett

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I heard about this series long ago, but never attempted to read the books. I’m not really sure why, maybe it’s because my sense of humour is different to most people’s.

Recently, I found myself in a situation where I was able to purchase the ebook at a very reasonable price. I decided to go with the flow. I purchased the book and put it at the top of my “to read” list.

My only expectation from the series was built around the word ‘funny’. I’m not sure I would use that word to describe the book, but it was amusing and it did make me smile a lot. That’s good enough for me.

I was surprised to find the book actually consisted of four stories, not totally related. The two main characters were delightful and they were the reason I read the book to the end. Unfortunately, the ebook was not ideally formatted and I found it difficult to keep track of where the scenes stopped and started. This caused problems with knowing whose point of view I was reading, which was confusing and distracting.

I liked reading the book but wasn’t as impressed as I thought I’d be. I’m not sure I’d be willing to purchase the second ebook to see how things go from here.